Tube ‘will suffer major new cuts to station staff’

Tube union bosses claimed today that London Underground is planning new cuts in station staffing.

The RMT union said it had received a leaked document, headed Minimum Staffing Levels, which it warned would "devastate" safety on the network.

The document, leaked by a "senior management source", discusses the minimum number of employees needed for the safe evacuation of stations.

It says that at busy locations such as Victoria and London Bridge, frontline staff — those in direct contact with passengers and responsible for an evacuation — could be cut from 12 to two at certain times of the day.

Seventy out of the 116 sub-surface stations would be reduced to a minimum two workers at times, with the remaining 46 still to be assessed.

The RMT claimed surface stations were also set "for wholesale de-staffing". Minimum staff levels were enforced after the 1987 King's Cross fire in which 31 people died.

LU is looking to make savings as part of Mayor Boris Johnson's plans to cut spending by £5 billion.

In December the Standard higlighted earlier documents passed to the RMT, which set out a plan to close ticket offices at 144 stations, with the loss of 1,200 jobs.

Today RMT leader Bob Crow said "hundreds" more could now go, adding: "It is clear that the cash-saving measures under discussion would devastate Tube safety."

A TfL spokesman insisted no decisions had been made yet and said: "This is more scaremongering by the RMT's leadership. We have no plans to reduce staffing below safe levels."